Six years in the making, the U.K.’s Online Safety Bill is now a done deal. The country’s House of Lords passed it yesterday, so it will receive royal assent and pass into law in the coming days. And everyone should be paying attention to what happens next.
That’s because the new law is at the vanguard of a global push to, well, make online life safer, especially for children. Some of this stuff is in current U.S. bills (like age-gating) and some is in the EU’s under-consideration “Chat Control” proposal (scanning messages)—no matter the place, the same issues apply. So, here’s a quick breakdown, starting with the more obviously positive aspects of the incoming Online Safety Act.
